What is considered the most checkered period in the history of the West Coast Eagles, this was the period of pretty much the open consumption of drugs by West Coast Eagles players. Sometimes unashamedly referred to as the West Coke Eagles, the West Coast Eagles management and coaching staff were well aware of the consumption of illicit drugs by the players and did nothing about it.

The team was experiencing a period of relative success, a tainted period of high performance where the players were treated as rock stars on the western seaboard of Australia. In Perth, the players were treated as high status individuals, they were admired by the masses. The team won the 2006 premiership and that is where the partying accelerated, as a consequence of this success, the players became unstuck. Their arrogance was their downfall, and geez, what a plummet into shame it was.

Former West Coast Eagles team mate Chris Mainwaring died from a drug overdose [cocaine seizure] in 2007, the last person to meet with him was the then captain of West Coast and drug addict Ben Cousins. A large team cohort was suffering from drug dependency along with the associated public meltdowns and arrests. Many of these players lost their savings, a number of them lost their freedom and a few ended up with lifelong mental issues. What is know is the drug culture was well entrenched in 2003 dating back to around 2000, the period from 2001 to 2007 was the worst.

Midfielder Chad Fletcher flatlined during their post season trip in Las Vegas spending four days in hospital. The West Coast management initially attempted to explain this as an allergic reaction to a yellow fever vaccination but later backtracked under pressure. Ruckman Michael Gardiner, with his open association with bikie gang members was traded to St Kilda. Daniel Kerr was making news headlines for erratic behavior, Daniel Chick was also newsworthy. Ironically, one former player interviewed by The Sydney Morning Herald stated it was easier to name the players who were not involved in drugs.

Daniel Chick has come out in the media and stated they did take drugs on game day trashing Ben Cousin’s insistence that he never used drugs during a game. Chick let it slip that players would snort crushed Xanax and mix Valium with vodka on flights. It is claimed when drug testers showed up at the club, players would notify Ben Cousins and he would miss training along with other players. This is a failure of the AFL, any player missing a drugs test should be immediately investigated, immediately present for testing or be suspended.

The club had become so dysfunctional that the AFL was required to call in Justice William Gillard to internally investigate the club. So damning was Justice Gillard’s investigation findings that the report has never been released by the AFL. What has happened though was Justice Gillard’s recommendations had to be implemented by the club with the AFL overseeing this process as the West Coast management had lost all control of the players. As it turns out, former players have been suffering from mental and behavioural issues that have affected their life post AFL.

This is humiliating for not only the West Coast Eagles, the Western Australian Football Commission, the owners of the West Coast Eagles but also the arrogant Eagles supporters. The supporters who are unrepentant really do not comprehend the significance of the Gillard investigation report. What is known is cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine were rife during that period and not purely limited to the midfield group, it appears just about the whole player group dabbled in drugs. West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett said in an interview that he would give back the success for player health – but no one believes that.

Yet, West Coast Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett, the longest serving CEO in the AFL is still in charge of the club. Nisbitt came on board in 1999, so that is a long tenure. What Nisbitt has overseen is the creation of a culture of substance abuse enabling. The Gillard investigation identified a failure of governance, the hierarchy were well aware of the drug usage. It has been claimed coaching staff assisted the players avoiding drug tests, any player who complained about the drug culture in the club was shut down internally.

But since they were winning games they chose to look the other way and this is the standards the West Coast management endorsed. As the AFL has never released the outcomes of the Gillard investigation, we will never fully know the extent of the drug taking that what went on at this club, but there is plenty of publicly released information to know drugs and cover-ups were rife at the West Coast Eagles and the management did nothing to shut this down as drug induced success is still success.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had ambitions of rolling over Ukraine in 10 days to pilfer their resources, land and labour. Whilst they had a stated objective of denazifying Ukraine in their special military operation, anyone who doesn’t swallow Russian propaganda knows this is an outrageous lie. Putin is now a war criminal who will be severely curtailed in future movements and may even be handed over the the International Criminal Court by his own country if this war deteriorates further and he is removed as fascist leader of Russia.

Putin is not demilitarising Ukraine, he is demilitarising Russia – he just hasn’t worked it out yet. Russia faces substantial sanctions, this will set their economy back years of development. Russia is a G20 nation, I will be interested to see if Russia slips out of the G20 altogether. The Russian military was thought to be the second best military in the world has been reduced to a shambles, they are losing personnel and equipment at an unsustainable rate. It was thought that a war of attrition would suit the larger country and military, we are learning this is not the case.

Ukraine is receiving military equipment from NATO partners including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany [eventually], Spain, Poland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Italy, Lithuania, Greece, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. This is not an exhaustive list, there are more countries supplying aid and weapons. Really, the only European country to not pull its weight is Hungary in this conflict – very poor form.

Then there is non-European military aid pouring in from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and even Israel who is providing anti-drone systems to protect the cities. There are smaller countries not mentioned, Iceland is a country without a military and is even trying to assist with non-military aid. Russian aid comes from Iran, North Korea and to a lesser extent China who will gain influence with the decline of Russia as an international ##. China, now the fourth largest military exporter, is delivering more advanced weapons now.

A boxer that interested me was Gene Tunney, what I liked about him is he is not your standard boxer of the era. Tuney was refined, he read poetry and Shakespere excelling in English and drama. Tunney was not a slugger of the era, he was a strategist. As an era, the roaring 20s was an interesting time for the sport of boxing – some argue a golden age.

The average boxer of that era was less of a boxer and more of a brawler. The fighters of that age were left with limited options in life, instead fighting weekly to scratch out a living. As opposed to the fighters of the 1920 and 1930s, Tunney could box, he wasn’t a brawler and to the surprise of everyone, he knocked off favourite Jack Dempsey. That is Tunny’s main claim to fame, taking on Dempsey and beating him when nobody gave him a chance.

Gene was a guy that could box, Tunney was a tactical boxer when boxing was less studied, there was no technology around to train boxers. Tunney saw boxing more as a game of chess, he could jab and move, however, when he needed to go toe-to-toe, he could. A boxer of that period was impoverished, this was a means to sustain themselves, to earn a living in a pretty hard period. Tunney was clearly from the poor side of town, but knew how to engage in combat.

Whilst Gene Tunney was a less respected fighter of that period, he fought the toughest fighters of that period and he was successful in that era. He may not have necessarily been an iconic boxer in a age of sluggers, Tunney was an effective boxer who could hold his own. What interests me is Tunney was knocked down once in 88 fights, was never knocked out and only lost one of those fights. Yeah, Gene Tunney was under-rated all right.

As a teenager in Perth in the 1980s, the Australian local music scene was strong, there were bands playing the local pubs. I was certainly too young in the early 80s to see live music in the pubs, but we discussed music at high school and there was always Countdown on the ABC on Sunday evening.

INXS were originally a Perth band in the late 1970s but moved to Sydney when forced to play covers instead of original music. The Farris brothers had already met up with Michael Hutchence in Perth and all headed east to pursue their dream of being the world’s number one band in the late 80s and early 90s.

The Kick album propelled the band into super-stardom, there were many memorable tracks from the album, the reason why Kick stayed highly positioned in the charts throughout 1987 and into 1988. For me, Never Tear Us Apart was the song of the album. The film clip was set in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic in winter, this was the reason I wanted to see this city.

I was finally able to visit Prague in 2014 during my long service leave, we were in the Munich Bahnhof and I enquired at the counter what train options I had. When I was told Prague, that was an easy sell and we were told to get moving to the departure platform as the train leaves in less than 10 minutes. That left us with just enough time to purchase a bagel and coffee and we were off.

We got to Prague after midnight, then we had to hang around in the terminal to use their WiFi to find some accommodation. My tablet was nearly flat, I tried to charge my tablet on the train but there must have been a power surge as the charger burnt out and the battery in my tablet was damaged, the capacity was now severely limited. I could see the battery indicator losing a percent per minute.

But we got there, we found accommodation so we found a bed and when I woke up in the morning, we had Prague to explore. Naturally I walked over Charles Bridge and I looked for the bank where Michael Hutchence strolled around in the opening scenes. Ok, so what does Never Tear Us Apart mean to me? Well, to Michael Hutchence, this was apparently about the band’s rise to stardom.

My sister played this song at the end of my brother in law’s funeral, just as it was played at Michael Hutchence’s funeral, so I really wanted to get to Prague to walk the same streets and river bank as INXS did shooting the video clip. This was by far the best song on an amazing album, the Kick album made INXS worldwide superstars

As a Fremantle Football Club supporter I am somewhat confused by the opposition to the sponsorship of Woodside Ltd to the FFC, but nothing is mentioned about the AGL sponsorship of the West Coast Eagles. So, what is the difference?

AGL Limited is an energy supplier and retailer, they are very prevalent on the east coast of Australia as an energy supplier for businesses and households. They operate a number of coal fired power stations and have had some very public slouches on the direction of the company. There is a very public disinformation campaign targeting Woodside Energy, but these very same activists are giving the West Coast Eagles a free pass on their sponsorship deals. Let’s not even discuss obesity and the long-term Hungry Jacks sponsorship deals.

Now as a duty of disclosure, I am a member of the Fremantle Football Club, own shares in Woodside Petroleum Limited and AGL Limited. Due to the issues within AGL and their inability to decarbonise and change their strategic direction to renewable energy, my long held interest in the company has devalued significantly. They have failed to look at further crypto, online betting, fast food, Coca Cola, Carlton Draft and a whole host of other sponsors.

Woodside Limited on the other hand is different, I want to invest more in this company but I believe the share price is fully valued. However, I do not want to pay a premium to purchase further shares in this company. Any broad market downturn would see me increase my holdings, I am waiting for such a downturn. I am not seeking to increase my exposure in AGL Limited in a downturn, I will just sit on my current holdings.

What Woodside Limited does very poorly is market this business. Sure, they are not a consumer business so they do not need to market this business in the same way a consumer supplier or retailer does. Nevertheless, Woodside Limited has been a long-term sponsor of the Fremantle Football Club and is an important sponsor, Woodside Limited does have natural gas investments but is also a major investor in renewable energy with $5 billion invested in new energy strategies by 2023.

Is the Valjoux 7750 the greatest chronograph movement of all time? Maybe, maybe not. I tend to think it probably is based on units sold. So what watches were fitted with the Valjoux 7750?

The 7750 isn’t necessarily the most complicated or technical chronograph. The 7750 differed from other chronograph movements due to simplicity. There was no column wheel, a set of levers rotates a cam to engage and disengage the chronograph. I had always thought the legendary Rolex Daytona ran a Rolex modified 7750 until the 4130 inhouse movement became available. Researching this post, I found I was mistaken, the Cosmograph Daytona was fitted with a hand-wound Valjoux 72.

A vintage Cosmograph Daytona can fetch serious money, I can seriously say, this highly collectable timepiece is out of my price range. The Valjoux 72 is a column wheel with lateral clutch that is hand-wound, not just a hand-wound version of the self-winding 7750. The IWC 1985 perpetual calendar chronograph used a modified 7750, Hamilton had a H31 version, Panerai, Fortis, Maurice Lacroix, Sinn and Damasko. Heuer ran a number of different chronograph movements, the Pasendina was an example along with the Breitling.

Valjoux is now part of the Swatch Group manufactured under ETA. Selitta manufactures a clone of the 7750, the SW-500 is pretty much the 7750. Apparently, the 7750 and SW-500 movement use interchangeable parts, interesting since the 7750 was introduced in the 1970s. Now you can probably call the Valjoux an inhouse movement, but that would be a bit of a stretch for most people, so the Valjoux mechanical chronograph can be considered a universal chronograph.

I frequently ask myself, what is a cognitive bias? For me, a cognitive bias is a preconceived notion that is based on incomplete information. This bias is a systematic flaw in thinking based upon individual perception, point of view or observation. Since my blog is named Observations in an Undemocratic World, this irony is not lost on me.

This is based on my personal observations, perception and way of thinking and is [naturally] not without bias or flaws. That being said, this blog is based on my personal observations and beliefs that may vary with readers. For me, this isn’t bad or incorrect, we all have differing viewpoints and perceptions and I frequently review cognitive bias to ensure I am not going too hard on one specific bias.

I started writing this post at the beginning of covid, it didn’t relay what I wanted to say so I relegated to the back of the draft file. Then, I picked this post up towards the end of 2022, so plenty had changed and I had a different perspective. I was pretty critical of the Chinese government and their inability to contain the virus within the borders of mainland China.

So, this is where we find ourselves, the pandemic is over and we have returned to our normal lives. There are no longer covid restrictions, we are living our lives as we did before. So what did we learn? Well, we should have learnt what jobs are critical to an economy, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison put it succinctly “If you stiĺl have a job, then you are a critical worker.”

What we do know is covid-19 originated from China, despite the best efforts of the wuamo, they were unable to grain any real traction in blaming Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom or indeed the US armed forces.what we all know is the corona virus exploded in the Wuhan wet markets before spreading through all of China and then the world.

This is where I am critical of the CCP, they allowed the mass movement of their citizens around the world during Chinese new year. Had the CCP curtailed travel, the corona virus would have remained a Chinese issue, this is not what the CCP wanted. The CCP were too slow to act, despite warnings of medical professionals in the city of Wuhan who tried to warn the population, corrupt party officials shut down dissent.

What is likely to be a more sinister motive, the CCP were happy to release the corona virus to the world so they could not only deflect blame from their shortcomings, they could unleash their wuamo on various social media platforms to plant dissent on conspiracy theory websites to create confusion and deflect blame.

Do you really need to blast your tank cap with full air pressure without going through your regulator? Probably not – oh well. Yet many divers do, this is a pretty widespread practice, I am meaning worldwide, everywhere I dive I see this. I have been known to use air to dry the dust cap, that is usually unusual circumstances though, I prefer to use my shirt or towel to dry the cap when I can.

Naturally it can be done, but it should be done at low-pressure, there are better ways to do it though. What really happens is you get an ear splitting crack as the valve is opened too far and excess air blasts out. I find it annoying, it really isn’t required, there are options that people don’t seem to consider. This is usually the result of poor instruction from instructors and learning content creators.

There has been the discussion of potential air embolism, but I do not know of actual cases, as a health and safety practitioner, I follow safety incidents in Western Australia and the other states. I don’t see incidents of air impregnation of the skin. In industrial workshops, we warn against compressed air safety, once again, we do not see a lot of statistics to warrant corrective actions.

Is there a better way? Well, yes there is, I get out of my wetsuit before dismantling my equipment so I have a shirt on so I use my shirt to wipe dry the cap. Between dives and a quick surface interval? Still use my shirt, even if I am not wearing it, that will be in my dry bag. People have towels in their bags and overhead storage bins, it is not hard to carry a small shammy in their kit or some other wipe – so yes, there are other ways.

I am glad to see Vacheron Constantin is beginning to gain some love by watch collectors online. As one third of the holy trinity of haute horology, Vacheron Constantin has been viewed as the poor cousin of Patek Philippe and Audermars Piguet. I could never understand this, sure Patek Philippe is high-end, it could be claimed Audemars Piguet has built its reputation on the Royal Oak and the Royal Oak Offshore. Yes, Patek Philippe has the Nautilus and Aquanaut, but they have so much more.

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of another Audemars Piguet timepiece despite looking around their boutiques in Hong Kong and Europe. There is the Code 11.59, released in 2019, it is certainly not the most popular Audemars Piguet offering. What I have seen looking through boutique windows is that Vacheron Constantin is a magnificent timepiece collection. The steel sports watch with integrated bracelet is the Overseas Automatic, this is the timepiece receiving the most love at the moment, collectors are now finding the Overseas desirable after the Royal Oak and Nautilus are mostly unattainable.

The Patrimony Minute Repeater Ultrathin is an elegant timepiece with a minimalist dial, this is my choice. The off-set petite minute hand at the 8 o’clock position is a decent style. I could never afford the precious metals that they use for this outstanding timepiece, but I can still enjoy the styling. The Patrimony Ultrathin Perpetual Calendar is a pretty decent complication, the Patrimony Retrograde Day-Date is interesting. There are self-winding and manual-winding options, I think I would prefer the manual-wind model.

The Traditionnelle has a Twin-Beat Perpetual Calendar, tourbillon, Calendar Chronograph, Day-Date, Complete Calendar, Self-Winding, Manual-Winding, and Ultra-Thin models. The Fiftysix has a Tourbillon, Complete Calendar, Self-Winding, Hand-Winding models, or one could argue movements and complications. The Historiques is probably the collection most suited to my tastes, when people discuss Vacheron Constantin, they nearly only discuss the Overseas Automatic. The Overseas Automatic is the steel sports watch that is the poor cousin of the PP Nautilus or AP Royal Oak. It is starting to get some love but I just love the simplicity of the Patrimony with the petite seconde.